By Angie Brushwood
Walnut Grove, MO – The Walnut Grove Lady Tigers improved to 16-2 with a 51-33 win over the Chadwick Lady Cardinals (9-7).
This marks eight consecutive wins for the Lady Tigers.
The Lady Cardinals put the Lady Tigers off their pace for most of the first half, staying within a few points and trailing 19-16 midway through the 2nd.
Grace McPhail ducked in for a steal and basket, widening the Lady Tigers’ lead to 21-16. With less than a minute remaining in the first half, the Lady Tigers’ Bayley Harman went 2-for-2 at the line, and Myranda McVay topped off the half with a 3-pointer, 26-16.
Head coach Rory Henry admitted the Lady Tigers were not at their best tonight, while praising Grace McPhail’s defensive efforts. McPhail had two steals in the 2nd and scored 7 points on the night.
“We didn’t feel like we played our best game tonight. We didn’t finish very well,” said Henry. “Chadwick did a great job defensively and took us out of rhythm. Grace really got after it on the defensive end and kind of set a tone for us. We’re really proud of her effort tonight. She did a lot of things that gave us energy.”
McPhail (soph.) has set a goal to improve her defense.
“I’ve been trying to hustle,” said McPhail. “I want to be the person who gets the team up and makes energy plays. I’ve been doing better with that this year. The first half was ugly. I was hoping I could bring some energy even to the bench and the crowd.”
Haley Farris eased the Lady Cardinals’ 10-point deficit with a final seconds bucket, and the Lady Tigers led 26-18 at the half.
The Lady Cardinals’ energy and confidence were clearly not the same in the second half, and the Lady Tigers outscored them 11-2 in the third. The Lady Cardinals charged back in the fourth, scoring 13 points to the Lady Tigers’ 14, but the damage was already done (51-33).
Shayna Adams scored 5 of her 10 points for the Lady Cardinals in the fourth, including a trey. Stevi Jones also scored 10 points for the Lady Cardinals.
Head coach David Argo was disappointed in the Lady Cardinals’ performance.
“We didn’t do much right tonight,” said Argo. “We didn’t run our offense. We didn’t play our good defense that we normally play. We just came out shellshocked and lackadaisical all night. Walnut Grove just took us out of what we wanted to do all night.”
Harman led the Lady Tigers’ with 24 points, followed by Hejna with 10 points.
With eight wins in a row, Henry looks forward to playing Springfield Catholic (10-7) on Saturday in Ozark.
“We feel like we have a good thing going right now–kind of rolling along. We’re excited to go play Springfield Catholic,” said Henry. “We’re healthy right now. Myranda McVay has been hurt all year, but now we have another guard to help us in that sense. Defensively–I want to say we’ve been guarding really well, but we didn’t that well in the first half tonight. The second half we did a better job. We’re starting to come together a little bit, and hopefully we’ll get better at the right time.”
Chadwick meets Hurley on Monday.
Walnut Grove: Bayley Harman 24, Raylie Hejna 10, Grace McPhail 7, Myranda McVay 6, Grace Miller 2, Kyle Verbeck 2 — 51
Chadwick: Shayna Adams 10, Stevi Jones 10, Haley Farris 5, Shelby Weter 4, Mikayla Bushong 2, Brooklyn Driggers 2 — 33
Walnut Grove 12 14 11 14 — 51
Chadwick 9 9 2 13 — 33
